Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques include hand-gathering, spearing, netting, angling, shooting and trapping, as well as more destructive and often illegal techniques such as electrocution, blasting and poisoning.
A fishing line is a flexible, high-tensile cord used in angling to tether and pull in fish, in conjunction with at least one hook. Fishing lines are usually pulled by and stored in a reel, but can also be retrieved by hand, with a fixed attachment to the end of a rod, or via a motor.
Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techniques such as handlining also exist. Modern angling rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a cranking device for storing, retrieving and releasing out the line, although Tenkara fishing and traditional cane pole fishing are two rod-angling methods that do not use any reel. The fish hook itself can be additionally weighted with a denser tackle called a sinker, and is typically dressed with an appetizing bait to attract and entice the fish into swallowing the hook, but sometimes an inedible fake/imitation bait with multiple attached hooks is used instead of a single hook with edible bait. Some type of bite indicator, such as a float, a bell or a quiver tip, is often used to relay underwater status of the hook to the surface and alert the angler of a fish's presence.
Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing where after capture, often a fast measurement and weighing of the fish is performed, followed by posed photography as proof of the catch, and then the fish are unhooked and returned live to the water. Using barbless hooks, it is often possible to release the fish without removing it from the water.
Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival and livelihood.
Jigging is the practice of fishing with a jig, a type of weighted fishing lure. A jig consists of a heavy metal sinker with an attached fish hook that is usually obscured inside a soft lure or feather-like decorations. Jigs are intended to create a jerky, vertical "jumping" motion to attract fish, as opposed to other common lures like swimbaits, spoons and spinnerbaits, which move through the water more or less horizontally. The jig is very versatile and can be used in both salt and fresh water. Many deeper water fish species are attracted to the lure, which has made it popular among anglers for years.
A fishing lure is any one of a broad category of artificial angling baits that are inedible replicas designed to mimic prey animals that attract the attention of predatory fish, typically via appearances, flashy colors, bright reflections, movements, vibrations and/or loud noises which appeal to the fish's predation instinct and entice it into gulping the lure. Angling activities using lures are known as lure fishing.
A fish hook or fishhook, formerly also called angle, is a hook used to catch fish either by piercing and embedding onto the inside of the fish mouth (angling) or, more rarely, by impaling and snagging the external fish body. Fish hooks are normally attached to a line, which tethers the target fish to the angler for retrieval, and are typically dressed with some form of bait or lure that entices the fish to swallow the hook out of its own natural instinct to forage or hunt.
Boilies are a type of fishing bait made from boiled paste that usually consists of fishmeals, milk proteins, bird foods, semolina and soya flour, which are mixed with egg white as a binding agent. The mixture is then boiled to form hard round balls that diffuse slowly and evenly in water. Additional flavourings and aromatic attractants are usually included in the mixture to enhance the olfactory appeal to the fish. The spherical shape also allows the baits to be catapulted accurately when fishing at distant waters.
Shortfloating or Short fishing is a fishing method that has been employed in running water by river anglers for many decades, and is also used by lake anglers. The method that allows the angler to selectively target species of fish by controlling hook length. Short floating is used in the river pools alongside runs, where resting fish have time to consider and take bait.
The nail knot, also known as the tube knot or gryp knot, is mostly used in carp and fly-fishing. The nail knot was named because a nail was inserted as a guide when threading the line. Today, it is easier to use a small straw. The nail knot is an important fishing knot used to join two lines of different diameters and allows for line diameters to diminish down to the fly. I.E., it is useful for attaching your backing to the fly line, and your fly line to the leader, or tippet. The knot can be tied in multiple ways and is uniform.
A spinnerbait or spinner is any one of a family of hybrid fishing lures that combines the designs of a swimbait with one or more spoon lure blades. Spinnerbaits get the name from the action of the metallic blades, which passively revolve around the attachment point like a spinning propeller when the lure is in motion, creating varying degrees of vibration and flashing that mimic small fish or other preys of interest to large predatory fishes. The two most popular types of spinnerbaits are the in-line spinner and safety pin spinnerbait, though others such as the tail spinner also exist. Spinnerbaits are used principally for catching freshwater fishes such as perch, pike and bass.
Fishing tackle is the equipment used by anglers when fishing. Almost any equipment or gear used in fishing can be called fishing tackle, examples being hooks, lines, baits/lures, rods, reels, floats, sinkers/feeders, nets, spears, gaffs and traps, as well as wires, snaps, beads, spoons, blades, spinners, clevises and tools that make it easy to tie knots.
Soft plastic bait, commonly known as soft lure, soft plastics, plastic bait, worm lure or just worm, is any of a range of elastomer-based fishing lures termed so because of their flexible, flesh-like texture. Soft lures are available in a large range of colours, sizes and particularly shapes, and are typically impaled directly onto a fishing hook like an ordinary bait.
An artificial fly or fly lure is a type of fishing lure, usually used in the sport of fly fishing. In general, artificial flies are an imitation of aquatic insects that are natural food of the target fish species the fly fishers try to catch. Artificial flies are constructed by fly tying, in which furs, feathers, thread or any of very many other materials are tied onto a fish hook.
A sabiki or flasher rig is typically fished off boats, piers, jetties, or any structure over the water. Sabikis consist of any number of small hooks, each one on individual dropper lines that are a few inches long. The individual dropper lines are then tied to a longer leader in series, about 6 inches (15 cm) apart; a weight is tied to the end of the leader. Alternatively, a larger lure or plug can be used at the end. This creates the illusion that a medium-sized fish is chasing 6 to 10 smaller fish.
Fishing techniques are methods for catching fish. The term may also be applied to methods for catching other aquatic animals such as molluscs and edible marine invertebrates.
Carp is a common name for various species of freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae that are native to Eurasia and sought after by some recreational fishermen. Certain carp species have been introduced, with mixed results, to various other locations around the world, and even declared invasive in certain regions.
Kite fishing is a fishing technique. It involves a kite from which a drop line hangs, attached to a lure or bait. The kite is flown over the surface of a body of water, and the bait floats near the waterline until taken by a fish. The kite then drops immediately, signaling to the fisherman that the bait has been taken, and the fish can then be hauled in. Kites can provide boatless fishermen access to waters that would otherwise be available only to boats. Similarly, for boat owners, kites provide a way to fish in areas where it is not safe to navigate - such as shallows or coral reef.
The chod rig is a fishing rig for carp fishing, generally regarded as having three main advantages: the way in which it allows a bait to be displayed over soft mud, weed or debris; and the way its distinct shape allows the chosen bait to be attached. The latter benefit is also generally utilised in the chod rig's immediate ancestor, the stiff-hinged rig. It revolves around a rig consisting of a rigid or stiff link, an aggressively angled hook point and the ability to spring 360 degrees around the axis of the hook. The third benefit is it makes carp fishing almost impossibly easy requiring little skill or effort for large rewards. The only requirement is to soak the baits for long enough until a carp finds it.
